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CU pledges to continue admitting students 'without regard to their immigration status'

Trump expected to make decision on future of DACA on Tuesday

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Posted:
09/03/2017 08:52:25 AM MDT

Updated:
09/03/2017 03:26:36 PM MDT

University of Colorado senior Adrian Mora-Alzacar chants while holding a sign as he and other march in November 2016 to call on the university to protect undocumented students. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

The University of Colorado has added its voice to the chorus calling on Congress to find a pathway to allow undocumented students to complete their studies, and announced the school's campuses will continue to admit students "without regard to their immigration status."

That declaration was made in a letter to CU students, faculty and staff posted online Saturday and signed by President Bruce Benson and the chancellors of each of CU's four campuses, including Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano.

It comes as President Donald Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday whether he will eliminate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which has given nearly 800,000 young immigrants the ability to work legally in the country and a reprieve from deportation.

"As the leaders of the University of Colorado, we cherish our DACA students and add our voices urging Congress to quickly find a pathway that will allow current and future undocumented students, all of whom have spent years being educated in the United States, to complete their studies without fear for their futures," Benson and the chancellors wrote.

CU's leaders stressed that DACA students remain welcome on the university's campuses, and that the school will "advocate on your behalf."

"Colorado grants many undocumented students the ability to receive in-state tuition, and we will continue to admit students without regard to their immigration status," they wrote.

Furthermore, the CU leaders pledged:

• To communicate that CU expects undocumented students and employees to be treated "with respect and dignity in our classrooms and our campus community"

• To not release any students' or employees' information to federal officials unless they have subpoenas or warrants, as that personal information is protected by state and federal law

• To try to grow programs that provide financial assistance to undocumented students

• To employ DACA recipients on CU campuses "for as long as we are able"

The letter concludes: "It's important for you to know where we stand — and our message to the DACA recipients in our community is simple — we stand with you."

After months of dragging his feet, the president on Tuesday will announce his plans for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Despite his pledges during the presidential campaign to end the program, Trump has spent the last week mulling his choices, going over his options again and again, according to several people who discussed those deliberations with the Associated Press.

"I think that this isn't a decision that the president takes lightly and he's taking time and diligent effort to make sure that he goes through every bit of the process," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday. "I think the decision itself is weighing on him, certainly."

At the same time, House Speaker Paul Ryan and a number of other legislators are urging the president to hold off on scrapping the program to give them time to come up with a legislative solution to protect those now covered by the program.

"These are kids who know no other country, who are brought here by their parents and don't know another home. And so I really do believe that there needs to be a legislative solution," Ryan told Wisconsin radio station WCLO.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah also urged Trump not to revoke former President Barack Obama's efforts to protect "individuals who entered our country unlawfully as children through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here."

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